Greetings from Riga!
Lilacs are blooming, spring is here, but we have not been writing for a long while. So, at last here are some news from us.
GLOBAL ACCESS CONFERENCE IN CALIFORNIA
In February we had opportunity to be part of the conference, where Christians around the world with calling to work with people with disabilities gathered together and had time to network, worship and study together. In our ministry we have been lonely, so it was fantastic feeling to be in same room with almost 900 people who all had the same calling. 
Conference was organized by Joni and Friends. We met her and other known Christians with disabilities (including Nick Vujicic). We learnt lot of theology of working with people with disabilities, but same time there were also lot of practical ideas. We met some other nationalities, but mostly we were networking with people from the Europe. We did meet Ukrainians who are doing almost the same work as us just in Ukraine. Funny was this that to get to know it, we needed to go to the USA. Similar conference for Europeans will be held in Austria during this year October and we will continue to network. Because of heavy snowstorm (not in California, but other parts of USA) we had to spend two extra days in Los Angeles and this meant that we were able to be part of Oscar awards ceremony (with the help of TV in our hotel room, but at least we were in same town 😀 ). You can see photos from here.
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN MERCY OUTREACH IN REZEKNE
Due of snowstorm this year project was half shorter for us. It was good that I was planning to be a mentor and I had the person to fill my place. It was a stressful situation for her, because I was only one able to send some Facebook messages to help her, but she survived and hopefully will be instead of me next year. I do feel that my time is done and I need rest, otherwise I will be totally „burned out“. W4W will continue with the program for people with disabilities and some of our team will join full time, but I am stepping back. I was involved less as usually, but God definitely did his 100% work as usual. This year we had a bit different project – we gave out food bags, clothing and organized different programs in Rezekne and 4 surrounding villages. So we had same time 5 different projects.
Some statistics 
There were 354 people from 34 countries who made and gave out 1311 food bags and led 135 people to follow Christ during the home visits. We gave clothing for 3051 people; held children programs for 252 children, youth programs for 205 youth, women meetings for 242 women, couple event for 48 couples, program for people with mobile disabilities to 61 and our evangelical meetings had 204 guests. During this week we touched 6835 people lives and all together 340 people decided to follow Christ. Also during W4W program 6 people came to the front and we will hope to continue to work with them. More photos are here.
WINGS FOR WHEELS
We have been growing. Three new members are almost completed our training program called Introduction to Leadership Training Course and are already involved with us. Some more people have shown interest to be part of us and our team will continue to grow.
Challenge 8 camp June (26) 27 – July 3 at Spare Boarding School near Cesis (first day is training day for assistants). Yesterday we had all planned for the camp. We just had W4W meeting to confirm last details when we got the phone call from Raiskums boarding school. We did book the dates over half year ago and yesterday got to know that we had been cancelled due the renovation work. We do call the camp Challenge and we joke that we have reached the level 8, but such a challenge we did not expect. Already some years we have been looking alternative place for the camp and have found nothing. Now during the meeting one of our new member mentioned that close to the Cesis is one more boarding school what is accessible. Kaspar suddenly called to there and they had exact same dates free for us what we had planned to have the camp in other place. Monday we will go to check it out, but we hope to fit in it. Camping in the tents for the week is even for our camp too great challenge (it would be cheaper though and everybody would appreciate civilization comforts afterwards 🙂 ). The Challenge camp is already worth of the it’s own name.
Our budget for the camp is 10,000 € (now it can be less, because seems that this school can have lower price) and with the promises we have over 6000 €. So there is still possibility to support the camp and let people with disabilities hear the Gospel message.
Second camp: Morning Dew July 27-30 in Vecmuiza guesthouse, near Limabazi will take Christians with mobile disabilities; bring them to beautiful surroundings to have fellowship with others and possibility to get closer to the God. This camp is smaller and shorter and our budget is 3000€. Because this camp will be later all the income has went to the Challenge camp. So, this is your possibility to help your brothers and sisters in Christ to get to know God and to become His disciples.
Third camp in Armenia August 5-10 (place and time is not confirmed, but it can be close to the Yerevan). Last year two Armenians (and the baby) were in Challenge 7 camp and saw how we are organizing the camp. So this year they will try to start the similar camp in Armenia. If it will happen, W4W will send Ruzanna – our staff with Armenian heritage – to help them. It is wonderful to see how the vision for people with disabilities are spreading. If everything going well we may have staff from 4 different contingents in the Challenge 8 camp (at the moment missing only Asia, Australia and Antarctica 🙂 )
MAGAZINE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
We are proud to present the first (digital) W4W magazine called “Sparni riteniem” ( Wings for Wheels in Latvian). At the moment it is mostly in Latvian, but will be translated into Russian, too. Short overview is also in English. It is planned to give out new number after every three month (every season). You can find the magazine here: http://sparniriteniem.mozello.com/home/
FUTURE PLANS
As the newsletter is already long I will share just some items. August will be vacation month for W4W team. There will be disability awareness seminar at September in Riga and European Disability Network conference in Austria at October.
If you would like to know anything more detailed, please let us know.
Blessings,
Evelyn, Kaspars, Rasmus
and W4W team